The present invention relates to the production of consumable tablets, and more specifically to the production of consumable tablets incorporating heat sensitive ingredients.
Many substances may be delivered to the digestive tract through the use of tablets. These tablets can include any number of ingredients including nutritional substances, pharmaceuticals, vitamins, herbs, etc. These ingredients can be incorporated into tablets through the use of a tablet press. Tablet presses take large volume amounts of these ingredients and compress them into a much denser tablet form.
The compressive forces from the tablet press can cause a significant increase in the temperature of the tablet ingredients. Many of the tablet ingredients are temperature sensitive. Thus the increase in temperature due to tablet compression may result in decreased potency of the tablet ingredients.
To achieve an end product tablet with desired potency, current tablet processes will use large excesses of beginning material. The necessity of including this excess material, to overcome the losses due to temperature sensitivity, increases the cost of production due to the amount of substance used to make the tablet, and due to the increased volume of material that the processing equipment must handle.
Refrigeration and freeze drying are known for the protection of food products (such as meat) from contaminant.es and to keep the food fresh. However, this type of processing is done to prevent the normal degradation that food goes through at ambient temperature. This type of processing does not address the issue of the decrease in potency of tablet ingredients due to processing conditions.
The present invention provides a process and apparatus that enable preserving the potency of a tableted heat sensitive ingredient. The process includes the steps of forming the ingredient into a tablet and cooling the tablet for a sufficient time and at a sufficiently low temperature to decrease the heat degradation of the ingredient. The process may be carried out in any number of tablet cooling apparatus that provide for cooling of the heat sensitive ingredient.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a tablet cooling apparatus for cooling tablets after the tablets have been formed in a tablet press. The tablet cooling apparatus includes a conduit, a coolant inlet and a coolant source. The conduit defines a passageway, having an inlet and an outlet. The outlet is adapted to receive tablets from the tablet press. The conduit is oriented and arranged so that the tablets will pass along the passageway from the conduit inlet to the outlet. The coolant inlet is coupled to the conduit for supplying coolant to the passageway. The coolant source supplies coolant to the coolant inlet. The coolant inlet is positioned in the conduit so that the coolant is supplied to at least a portion of the passageway so that the tablets are bathed in coolant as they travel along the conduit from the conduit inlet to the outlet.
In a further embodiment, the present invention provides a tablet cooling apparatus for cooling tablets after the tablets have been formed in a tablet press having a tablet outlet. The tablet cooling apparatus includes a container, a coolant inlet and a coolant source. The container has an outer surface, an inner surface, a bottom portion, and a top lid portion defining an at least partially enclosed space. The top lid portion is hingedly connected to the bottom portion. The bottom portion of the enclosed space is capable of containing coolant. The container is in flow communication with the tablet outlet and is capable of receiving tablets into the enclosed space, thereby placing the tablets and coolant in contact in the enclosed space. The coolant inlet is coupled to the container for supplying coolant to the enclosed space. The coolant source supplies coolant to the coolant inlet.
In another embodiment of the invention, a process is provided for preserving the potency of a heat sensitive ingredient. The process includes the steps of forming the ingredient into a tablet, and cooling the tablet for a sufficient time and at a sufficiently low temperature to decrease the heat degradation of the ingredient.